Shipley Company and Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd. have launched a research and development partnership to speed development of a leading-edge lithography process for making faster, more powerful chips.

Shipley Company and Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd. have launched a research and development partnership to speed development of a leading-edge lithography process for making faster, more powerful chips.

Under the multi-year agreement, the two companies will join forces to develop photoresists for the new 193 nanometer Argon Fluoride lithography process. This leading-edge process enables chip manufacturers to print smaller features on semiconductor devices, thereby dramatically increasing the performance and storage capacity of each chip.

Shipley and Samsung are the first photoresist and semiconductor manufacturers, respectively, to join forces to develop this new technology. The partnership will give Samsung first access to the new photoresist products and allow Shipley to manufacture and market the jointly developed, licensed technology to the semiconductor industry.

'We are very excited by the potential that this agreement presents for both partners', said Pierre Brondeau, president and CEO of Shipley Company. 'We are honored that Samsung, an acknowledged technology leader in the memory chip market, has chosen Shipley as its partner. We believe that the combination of our expertise in photoresist chemistry and Samsung's leading-edge chip manufacturing technology will catapult both parties to the forefront of the rapidly-evolving 193nm market.'

Dr. Moon-Yong Lee, senior vice president of Samsung Electronics' Semiconductor Research and Development Center, said that Samsung's partnership with Shipley will help keep both companies advancing the state of the art at a time when research and development on new materials is facilitating a fundamental breakthrough in the current process architecture.

'We will continue to develop new materials based on a long-term relationship with Shipley.' he added.